Training day 1 before lunch
District twelve's Evanlyn "Eve" Scott's POV
As me and my district partner Colin got lead to the elevator that would lead us to the training center, I thought of what I had to work on. What did I have to improve to give me better odds in the arena? I was a fast runner and agile, that could help me get away from any hostile tributes that came after me. I was one of the smartest kids in my school, but would that help me any? Maybe I could learn some snares and create a strategic trap that would at least cripple the enemy. I was also good at hiding, being a thief, I learned how to hide in the smallest spaces and using the shadows and lighting to my advantage. I should see if I could improve in any of those, maybe take up some camouflage like my mentor, James, suggested to me. Then maybe later, learn something new that could be useful to me. I don't know, maybe foliage identification, that could help me survive in the arena, assuming that there is edible foliage in the arena.
"Ok you two," our escort said to us talking so quickly I could barley understand her rushed words "push the button marked negative one and you should get to where you need to be, ok bye." And then the elevator doors closed on us separating her from us. Wasn't she supposed to bring us to the training center? I think she's still mad from getting hit in the face with that rock back during the reapings. Well, she wasn't the nicest person to us anyway. I looked over to Colin and nudged my head towards the elevator buttons. He turned and looked at me dumbly. Maybe he just didn't see me nudge my head, so I did it again. Again, he just looked at me dumbly. The elevator buttons were on his side of the elevator, he should press the button to the training center. I nudged my head towards the elevator buttons one last time to see if he'd understand. He didn't. I sighed, reached over, and pushed the button myself. I then felt the elevator swiftly start making its way down. All of a sudden, I felt something start playing with my hair. I quickly turned around to see Colin's large fingers fiddling around with my hair. I swatted his hands away before glaring at him. He only smiled at me. Now I couldn't wait to get out of this elevator and get to training. When the elevator finally made it to the training room, the doors swished open before I walked into the training center. I saw eyes turn towards us, I looked back at them. We weren't the last ones. As someone pinned the number twelve to my back and shirt sleeve, I saw that everyone else had their district number attached to their shirt sleeves and backs. Only the careers from districts one, two, and four were here along with district six, eight, and us.
Looking at the tributes in simple clothing now, I saw that most of the tributes from six and eight were thinner then they first appeared. For instance, the girl from six, Rayne I think her name was, had a thin body despite being tall, same with the pale boy beside her. Same with the girl from eight, though not as extreme as district six, she looked healthy enough. The boy from eight had more weight on him, but not as much as Colin. But that didn't mean he was any better then the rest of us, he looked a little overweight and out of shape. The careers were a different story however. They had the bodies of kids that were rarely, if ever, hungry. They all had fit bodies and gave off an aura of dangerous, even the little twelve year old girl gave off the same vibe.
The tributes that came in after us mostly looked like the non-careers. Some looked strong, like district eleven's Aerin, but he was nowhere as strong or healthy looking as the district one male. The only exception to that was the district three male. When I saw him come through those elevator doors, he was even scarier then he was on T.V. His very presents radiated evil. He had a very muscular build that rivaled, maybe even exceeded the district one male's. Plus, he was taller then him. And behind him came the scared twelve year old girl from his district and the five escorting peacekeepers.
"Hello ladies!" The district three male shouted just after he left the elevator before laughing crazily. I was definitely going to stay away from him. Not even the red eyed kid from five scared me as much as he did. When all twenty four tributes were in the room, a man named Hannibal welcome us all before listing off the stations which we could try out. There were weapon stations, survival stations, and obstacle courses. I should start with a survival station first, weapons could come later.
"Ok," Hannibal said ready to release us "ummm, have fun." Yeah, I thought, I'll try.
I headed away from Colin and headed for the foliage identification station. There, I met a stunningly good looking girl that didn't look much older then most of the tributes here.
"Well well well," she said like she was teasing someone "looke here, my first victim, ready to see if you can feed or poison yourself?" I shrugged like I couldn't care less. I just wanted to learn something useful. The instructor then pulled out a whole hand full of plants from a table to her left. I looked at the plants and saw that while I recognized some, a large number of them I had never seen before in my life. "Ok," my instructor said "sort through those and tell me which of those are edible and which ones aren't."
"Isn't there an easier way?" I asked wondering if I had to go through each of these plants, some of which were tangled to each other.
"We could use the book," she told me "but you'd only see pictures of them, I think its better if you see the plants first hand." She had a very good point. All right, I'll see which ones I think are edible. Lets see if I could survive the mock arena.
District two's Lucifer Despar's POV
"So what are you all good at?" I asked my fellow careers. Me and my district partner, along with the boys and girls of districts one and four stood facing each other. "I'm good with close range weapons such as knives and running."
"Running?" The district one male, Griffin snorted, like he thought it was a joke "what good's running."
"It's good to use when catching a coward tribute running away. So, what are you good at doing Griffin." I then saw Griffin calmly walk to the mace weapon station. Pick up a heavy mace with both of his hands, and powerfully swing it at a combat dummy. As soon as he struck the combat dummy, I saw it leave the ground and do a backflip before it landed on its face, if it had a face. I was impressed. "Ok," I said nodding my head "strong, close range, mace." I looked to Griffin's district partner. "What's your skills?"
"Follow me." Lynsa told us. We then followed her to the archery station. When we got there, we saw the district five female, Valerie, loading up an arrow into a bow, and letting of it before she put any tension on the string. Wow, she was lame.
"Do you even know how to use that?" I asked wondering if she even held a bow before. She was failing to do the most basic archery skills. It was pathetic.
"Guess not." She said looking at the fallen arrow. From the corner of my eye, I saw Lynsa pick up a long bow and swiftly place an arrow in it. She then pulled on the string and released the arrow and let it fly into the center of the bullseye target. Her accuracy was top notch. But if that wasn't enough, she fired off about six more arrows in the time it would have taken for me to fire off two good shots. And even better, she hit them in the eight to ten score. If it were a person she was shooting at, she'd either hit them in the head or the neck.
"Very impressive." I told her. And I was impressed, very.
"Yes," Valerie said also impressed "where'd you learn to get so well?" Lynsa looked like she was about to say something, but I wanted to have some fun with her.
"You don't learn how to do it," I told Valerie, obviously lying "you have to be born with the skill, otherwise, its impossible to get this well." Sadness seemed to flood her eyes as she started to walk away, saddened. When she was out of ear shot, I started to laugh. And so did, Howl.
"I thought I wasn't going to make it." Howl laughed
"I know, man, she's dumber then I thought." She actually believed it.
"You have to be born with those skills otherwise you can't learn them." Howl said making a mock version of my voice, which only made it funnier "what a laugh."
"That wasn't funny you two." Lynsa said to us seriously
"Yeah, that wasn't very funny." Evaline added. Those two had no sense of humor. Howl and I laughed for a bit more before calming down.
"Ok fine," I said taking one last laugh before turning all serious again "ok Howl, what are you good at?" I then saw the little girl walk to the knife section where three other tributes were hanging out at, the boys from districts three, six, and eight. The boys from six and eight saw us, looked at us, but the district three male didn't seem to notice us. Good, I didn't want him to see us yet. This was the station that most non-career tributes try out first. Howl went beside them before picking up a knife and throwing it at a bullseye target and hitting it dead center. So she was a long range fighter like Lynsa. And she was good, better then any twelve year old I ever saw. She's be a great threat in the arena despite how she looked. I was glad that her and district one was on my side.
"Satisfied?" Howl asked proudly as the district six and eight boys looked at her in surprise before turning to the knife she threw.
"Yes." I told her before I then turned to district four's Shoney. "So four, what are you good at?" It was probably going to be some kind of fishing skill or something.
"I'm good at swimming and I'm good at running." Shoney answered. Fast huh, well, we'll see how fast he was when we race each other.
"Anything else?" Lynsa asked "you must have a weapon you're good with." Shoney looked around with his eyes a bit before saying
"Knives, I guess."
"You guess?" Howl said "you are or you aren't, so are you good with knives or not?"
"Lay off him ok," I heard his district partner say coming to defend what little needed to be defended "he doesn't want to show I'm guessing." I then looked at Evaline.
"Doesn't want to show us? Fine, but I have more faith in his abilities then yours reaper, even if he didn't show his skills off, we'll see his in a bit. But you," I said jabbing her chest with my right index fingers "you were the only one here that was reaped, you going to prove that you aren't useless to us?" Evaline then glared at me before picking up a knife beside her.
"This outa be good." Howl said as we followed her. I couldn't wait to see what she did. She'd probably mess up or something. I watched as Evaline aimed the knife, and threw it at a bullseye target, and hit it just centimeters from the center. Better then what I expected from a reaped tribute.
"Impressive," Howl commented looking at the target range "but, I can do better, as you saw."
"At least you aren't totally useless." I commented. She was good, I'll give her that.
"What about you Lucifer," Evaline said smiling "you haven't show us your skills." Did she really think she could intimidate me?
"Yeah, well, for now, I think we should split us and see the different stations and see what other tributes we might want to recruit." And with that, I turned around and ran towards the spear throwing station. And even though it was almost one hundred meters away, I made it there in less then fourteen seconds. I turned around and smiled at the rest of the career group. That was my speed Shoney, what's yours?
District seven's Sami Lavisa's POV
Don't show what your good at, that was my plan. Ok, I can do that. There was a slingshot section and a dart gun section, I was good with both of those because of the play sessions I had with Gracie and Jhono, so I'd stay away from those. What did I want to try? Something new. I looked around the weapons stations and saw a majority of the careers around them. The district two boy was chucking spears, the district one male and female was trying out archery while the district four girl was at the whip section. I saw that the sword station was unoccupied. Well, I could learn how to use a close range weapon. I would have wanted to go to the knife section, but that district three male was there, and I didn't want to do near him right now. I walked over to the sword training station where I was meet with a young, blond haired girl with green eyes.
"Trying swords?" The girl asked.
"Yes." I said quietly. I saw the girl pick up a sword from a barrel that was full of swords. The sword she pulled out for me was long and straight.
"Here you are." She said placing it into my hands, which immediately I felt the weight of it, it was heavier then I thought it'd be. The girl steeped back before telling me to swing the sword at the training dummies to my side. "Try to hit the heads or the X's in the chest." She told me. Ok, easy enough I thought. But then, I struggled to lift the sword higher then my head. I didn't think I could cut the head, so I just stuck with the chest area. I swung the heavy weapon back and forth cutting the dummies torsos. Every time I took a strike at a dummy, the sword crashed onto the floor making a loud clang before sending a powerful vibration up though my arms. I wanted to keep going though, so I held on and lifted again. But after about a couple dozen swings, I couldn't even lift the sword up anymore. I could feel my arms aching, my shoulders were shaking, and bits of sweat were going down my forehead. I was beat.
"Maybe swords arn't for you." The trainer told me. She was probably right, I could barley lift it above my shoulders, and I swung it around like a child. But I was a child though. "How about you try something not so hard?" The trainer advised me "try archery, or the whips. Or try some survival stations, you don't need to only know about weapons." You know, she was right, I didn't only need to know about weapons, I had to focus on survival as well. I dragged the sword to her and placed it in her waiting hands. Sword play, just wasn't for me. It was too heavy and I didn't do a lot of damage to the dummies.
"Sorry." I quietly told her as she placed the sword into the barrel of other swords.
"Its ok." She told me. She gave me a sympathetic smile and nod before I turned around and left. As I headed to the knot tying section, I heard some fabric ripping behind me and a sort of grunting noise. I looked back to see the district nine male, the one who had volunteered, the one with one black eye and one green eye. He was at the sword station that I was just at, and he was swinging it higher, harder, and faster then I was. His cuts to the chest were deeper then mine, plus, he reached the head as well. Damn, how could I fight people like that?
I tried not to think about it as I got to the knot tying section where there was another occupant. A girl around my age with black wavy hair was trying to tie a knot with rope.
"Ah, another visitor." The trainer said happily to me "what would you like to learn today?" Something useful.
"Tr-traps." I told him shyly. I couldn't help it, I was naturally this way.
"Traps huh," he said still smiling "some simple traps that can get you food, alright, I'll show you what I'm showing this other girl here." The trainer then handed me a long piece of thick rope, which I took from him, before he started to show me how to tie a trap line that would capture small animals and leave them suspended in the air. From the way this guy acted and the way he explained how to tie, I think that he liked his job. That he might even have fun doing it. "And there you have it." He said showing me the finished job. "You try now." And I did. But I found out that it was easier said then done, turns out that this was hard. I kept on getting it wrong and had to restart several times. He made it look so easy. It looked like that the other girl with me had the same kind of problem. She was grumbling and saying that she could never do it. "Want me to show you again?" The trainer asked. Say yes, if he shows you he'd be showing me too.
"Can you do it for me?" The girl asked throwing her half completed trap down "I don't want to do this anymore."
"Oh come now," The trainer said easily finishing her trap "it won't come immediately, it just takes practice."
"Practice," the girl half laughed half snorted "I've never done this before, it would take all day for me to finish this, and I want to do other things to you know." As the girl kept on complaining, I started to remember the way the trainer had completed her trap. I then started to try and copy his movements. If I tried to remember how he did it, put a picture in my head, and tried to do what he showed me. And soon, I was blocking out the sound of the girl beside me complaining.
"Nobody just starting can-"
"Can we talk about something else?" The trainer asked sighing "I've been hearing you complain for about forty five minutes." I then looked at my finished trap and was pleased with myself. It didn't look as good as his, but, close enough. My first accomplishment in the games. Well, I'm not in the arena yet, but this was still the games I guess.
"I'm just saying that...whoa, look at that." The girl called out. I looked up to her and saw her looking at my trap. I looked at the trainer wondering what he thought of it. He looked at my trap and smiled.
"It's not perfect, but its as close as you can get it." I then felt extremely pleased with myself. I remembered the way he tied it and with that plus a bit of thinking and experimenting, I did it.
"That's great." The girl said now looking at me.
"Thanks." I said shyly.
"My name's Angel," the girl said to me crouching down "what's yours?"
"S-Sami." I told her.
"Well you seem to have some skills Sami, you know, we could be allies, I'm good with bows, so we won't have to worry about close combat." She was a long range fighter, just like me. And allies could help me survive longer, if they didn't stab me in the back. But she didn't seem to be the kind of person to do that. "Would you like that Sami?" Angel asked. I nodded my head. Allies.
A/N: Well, day one, part one is done. I hope you all like.
If you character wasn't mentioned now, don't worry, there's like, two and a half days worth of training plus private sessions, and we've got though only half a day so far. But I shudder at the thought of another 24 POV's in one chapter. I also shudder at the thought of interviews.